Installed a pole for AT9

[raoul5788]

I finally got around to installing a pole for an AT9. It's buried 3 feet in the ground and is 9 feet in the air. I may need to shorten it if it isn't stable enough without guy wires. Now to get the installer out here.

 

[charper1]

Did you attach a counter-spin device at the bottom of the pole, and lay base in the hole for proper drainage? I am sure you did, but just asking.

 

[raoul5788]

Did you attach a counter-spin device at the bottom of the pole, and lay base in the hole for proper drainage? I am sure you did, but just asking.

Yes, I put a lag bolt through the pole about a foot from the bottom. Proper drainage may end up being a problem. Look in the background of the picture. There is standing water at the tree line. The water table is very high this time of the year. I hit water about three feet down, which is why I didn't dig deeper. There was about six inches of water I couldn't get out, so I just mixed the concrete in the hole. It's not the best way to do it, but I don't think I had any other options, save digging another hole, where I would have hit more water.

 

[Last_Place]

Did you fill the pole with concrete?

 

[raoul5788]

Did you fill the pole with concrete?

Yes. I got as much into the pole as I could. I filled most of the hole with concrete, then put the pole in. I think I got it filled fairly well.

 

[Mike500]

It would be to your advantage to make the pole as short as possible and still get a good line of sight. The longer the pole is; the longer the lever arm and the pole's likeliness to whip in the wind.

You could, however, get yourself a larger diameter section of pipe, some three to four feet, and place it over the bottom section of the current pole and fill it with concrete. That would stiffen the pole. The new vibrational mode would make the pole a shorter wave, making the pole a 1/2 instead of a 1/4 wave length. This would, in effect dampen the vibration or whipping of the pole with the dish on it in the wind.

Also, placing more concrete around the base will also steady it. In engineering structual foundations, when depth cannot be achieved, a wider base serves the same purpose.

 

[Mike500]

Yes. I got as much into the pole as I could. I filled most of the hole with concrete, then put the pole in. I think I got it filled fairly well.

If the pole is of a thin wall, filling it completely or leaving the bottom open is necessary for drainage. It;s like the drainage holes at the bottom of a car door. If the pole, like the car door fills with water and has nowhere to go, unless the pole is aluminum or stainless steel, water will eventually make it's own exit by rusting through the steel, even if it is galvanized.

 

[Stargazer]

Do the AT9's happen to use 2" diameter pole?

You could get a plug for the end of the pole (the Primestar Dishes had plugs on them).

 

[Last_Place]

Thats a good idea, i should have remembered that.

 

[Mike500]

You could use a cheap 6"x4' cardboard Sonotube easily bought for a few dollars at Lowes or Home Depot. Lowes and Home Depot now sells 5,000 PSI fiber self reinforcing concrete in 60 pound premixed bags.

Digging a 2 ft. diameter by 6-8 inch deep hole all around would make the pole really steady.